Author's Note: Welcome to chapter four! I know I only uploaded chapter three yesterday, but I just couldn't wait to put this chapter up. I have to admit that I'm a little nervous about this one - I'm not sure if it's as good as my other three - but I hope you all like it! Happy reading :-)
Hede was unable to take her eyes off of her son when she was settled on the settee with him in her arms the next morning, a smile on her lips as she rocked backwards and forwards in a comforting motion and fed him his bottle. When he had been a newborn she had longed to nurse him herself, to have the same intimate moments with him that she had been blessed enough to have with Camilla, but she had found it too hard. She had been in too much pain.
Expressing her milk was far less painful than having Luca latched onto her, however, and so that was what she had resorted to doing when Luca had been a couple of weeks old. Even though she fed him through a bottle, he was still getting her milk and knowing that allowed her to rest easier at night. 'My beautiful boy.' She whispered as she gazed into his eyes, a perfect coo coming from him when she lowered her head to nuzzle a kiss onto his forehead.
'All I ever heard when we were children was how much you wanted to be a mother when you grew up.' She turned her head in the direction of the doorway to the sitting room when her brother's voice reached her ears, a giggle escaping her when she saw him leaning against the door-frame before he walked into the room and began to approach her. 'All you would ever ask for at Christmas or on your birthday was a doll or accessories for your dolls.' He smiled.
'I remember.' She admitted as she lowered her gaze to Luca again when he sat next to her on the settee. 'I also remember how you used to steal my dolls and hide them to make me cry whenever I was being a pain.' She turned her head in his direction before glancing up at him.
Georg nodded with a chuckle. 'You were the most irritating little sister when we were young. I couldn't go and do anything without you wanting to do it too.' The two of them smirked.
'You know; most people would see that as a little girl adoring her older brother.' She teased.
He rolled his eyes good-naturedly as he nudged her.
The two of them then fell into a comfortable silence whilst waiting for Luca to drink the rest of his bottle, Hede removing the nipple of it from between his lips once he had finished the last of the milk before she sat him up in her lap. 'How did last night go? Did you get to sleep in the end?' She asked her brother when she started to run her fingers through Luca's hair.
'I got a few hours.' He nodded. 'Marta and Gretl came and got into bed with me at one point.'
Hede smiled at him as Luca made little baby noises in her lap and used his fingers to inspect the gold locket that hung around her neck. 'I doubt Elias will be joining us and the children for breakfast. He didn't end up getting home until one o'clock this morning and it sounds as though he's coming down with something, so I've told him that he can't get up until lunch.'
'I think I'm going to go out and have a look for Maria after breakfast.' He admitted. 'I want to find her as soon as possible, which means that I have tosearch for her as long as possible.'
'I'll come with you.' She told him. 'I'll ask Nanny if she can keep a close eye on the little ones for us and I'm sure that the children will get along just fine. I'm guessing Liesl's coming?'
He nodded with a smile. 'She all but begged me to let her come and look for Maria with me.'
'Well, we should find Maria even sooner with three of us searching for her.' She said.
The two of them looked at Luca when he let out a soft squeal of happiness, Georg chuckling as he saw that his nephew was reaching out for him. Once Hede had let him take him from her, he brought him into his lap and looked at him for a time as he held him close. 'I should probably warn you that when we get Maria here, she's going to be all over this young man.'
'Ah, so she's a baby-lover.' She laughed.
'One of the biggest.' He smirked before stroking Luca's dark hair.
After a few minutes of bonding with his nephew and allowing him to inspect the wrist-watch that he had on, he turned back to his sister and said: 'When we manage to find Maria, we'll bring her back here, but she and the children and I won't be able to stay in Switzerland after that. If we do, Zeller will just come looking for the nine of us again and we'll be in danger.'
'I understand that.' She nodded. 'So, where will you go?'
'I'm not too sure, yet, I think we'll travel around for a little while, but I'm leaning toward our final destination being somewhere in America.' He admitted. 'As far away as possible is the safest option for us. It's going to kill me to leave all of this behind, but I have to think of the children and Maria and what's best for them.' Hede smiled at him as she caressed his arm.
'You'll write, won't you?' She asked.
Georg reciprocated her smile before giving her a kiss on the forehead. 'Of course, I'll write.'
'I'll send you photographs of this little one and Camilla, too.' She told him.
'I'd like that.' He admitted. 'Maria and I might have a few photographs of our own, soon.'
Hede gasped, her face breaking out into a wide smile. 'She's pregnant?'
'We don't know for certain just yet; a doctor hasn't been to her and confirmed it yet, but she is displaying some of the symptoms. That's one of the reasons why I want her back sooner rather than later. If she is pregnant, she needs caring for and I know that whoever has her is doing the opposite of that if anything.' He admitted when he met her gaze before sighing.
'We'll find her, Georg.' She shifted closer to him and took his hand.
'I hope you're right.' He admitted. 'I really do.'
'I didn't manage to track down the Captain and the children in the mountains when I was up there yesterday.' Zeller admitted when he and Tobias were talking in the shack a short time later, his voice soft so not to disturb Maria who was still asleep on the bed. 'I've decided that I'm going to go up there again now and search for them until lunchtime. If I can't find them it means that the eight of them are somewhere here in Switzerland, and so I'll drive around.'
Tobias nodded. 'What will you do if you can't find them, Sir?'
'I've decided that I'm going to give it four days.' Zeller told him.
'Four days, Sir?' Tobias asked, unsure of what he meant.
'I'm going to look for the Captain for four days and if I'm still unable to find him, the two of us are returning to Salzburg and taking Maria with us. If I haven't found him in that time, it means that he must not care enough about her to go on a thorough search. If we do take her back to Salzburg, we will give her a false identity and you will make her your wife.' He said.
Tobias' eyes widened. 'My wife?'
'Yes.' Zeller replied. 'If she becomes your wife, the children that she bears you will be Aryan.'
'Children?' Tobias had to fight against the urge to let his jaw drop to the floor.
'Tobias, if I wanted an echo I would have shouted it from the rooftops.' Zeller hissed.
Tobias fell silent.
'Relax,' Zeller patted his shoulder, 'if things go my way, it won't happen.'
'Yes, sir.' Tobias nodded.
The two of them looked over at Maria when she whined in her sleep and began to stir, a sigh of relief leaving Zeller when all she did was turn over and pull the blanket further over her body. 'Now, I'll leave her in your hands. If she tells you that she wants to get some air, make sure that she is kept out of sight and that you use the handcuffs on her. I don't trust her.'
Tobias nodded before Zeller stepped past him and walked out of the shack, closing the door behind himself. When he was alone with Maria, he walked over to her bed and looked down at her resting form. If he was honest, if he was a few years older and looking for someone to settle down with and if she was single, he wouldn't have minded taking Maria for his bride.
She was beautiful, she was gentle and she had the prettiest blue eyes.
He knew, however, that even though he would have to face the wrath of Zeller, he would not be able to go through with his plan. If Zeller didn't find the Captain in three days' time, on the fourth day he would have to sneak Maria out of the shack and aid her in getting back to her husband. He could sit there and watch her for as long as Zeller asked him to, but what he couldn't do was take another man's wife. He couldn't force Maria into becoming his wife.
It was obvious to him that her husband and children meant more to him than life itself and he knew that if he and Zeller took her back to Salzburg and if he forced her into marriage with him, she would spend the rest of her life miserable. He was somewhat shocked to hear himself say it, but he found that he was starting to care for her. He wanted her to be safe.
He wanted her to be happy and reunited with her family and – if the Gauleiter didn't locate the Captain in the next three days – he would make certain that that happened.
Even if it cost him his life.
'We look ridiculous.' Georg grumbled at his sister when he and Liesl were sat together in the back seat of Hede's car later that morning, his daughter wearing a headscarf and a pair of sunglasses whilst he wore a hat and an overcoat that were both at least three sizes too large.
'You told me yourself, Georg,' Hede replied as she kept her eyes on the road, 'you aren't sure if it was Zeller and one of his men who took Maria or not and, if it was them, it means that they are in Switzerland and could be in one of these cars. Do you want to risk being caught?'
Liesl had to suck her bottom lip to keep herself from giggling as her aunt scolded her father.
'What are you smirking about?' She turned her head towards him when he spoke to her, the two of them exchanging a smile when she realised that he was just teasing. 'I am so proud of you, you know. You're being so grown up about all of this, Liesl, and so brave and I know that your mother is going to be just as proud of you when we find her.' He told her gently.
Liesl sighed as she rested her head on his shoulder and allowed him to wrap his arm around her. 'It doesn't feel right. Her not being with us, I mean.' She said as she snuggled into him.
'I know it doesn't, darling, but she'll be back with us sooner than you think.' He soothed.
'Aunt Hede?' She raised her brow after a few seconds.
'Hmm?' Hede hummed as she looked through the rear-view mirror.
Liesl met her gaze in the mirror before smiling. 'Where's the next building we're going to?'
'It's about a ten-minute drive from the factory that Elias works at.' Hede replied.
'How do you know so much about the abandoned buildings around here?' Georg frowned.
'Elias likes exploring them. He tells me about them and shows me the things that he finds in them, that's how I know where they are.' She told him. 'You can't tell him that the three of us have been to them though, because he made me promise him that I wouldn't go near one in case I ended up hurt.' She rolled her eyes, Georg chuckling gently as he held Liesl close.
When Liesl shuffled closer to him and draped her arm across his stomach before grazing the side of his neck with her nose, he turned his head towards her before kissing her forehead and tightening his hold of her. 'I love you so much; you know that, don't you?' He asked her.
'Of course, I do.' She smiled when she looked into his eyes. 'I love you too, father.'
The two of them then fell into silence, Liesl bringing her head to settle on his chest in order for her to look out of the window and watch other cars go by. She hoped that she and her father and aunt found her mother soon. With each moment that passed she found that she became more concerned about her mother's welfare and she prayed that she was alright.
If it was Zeller who had abducted her, she knew that her father wouldn't hold back.
She knew that he would make him pay for it.
'Are you...' Maria looked over her shoulder at Tobias when she was stood in the window of the shack and she heard him begin to say something a few hours later, 'are you hungry?'
She looked at him in silence for a second before nodding. 'I suppose I am, a little.'
'I have some Sachertorte in my bag.' He told her. 'You're welcome to have it if you want it.'
'It's yours.' She shook her head. 'It wouldn't be right.'
Ignoring her, he leaned down and opened his bag before pulling out the slice of cake which was wrapped in a napkin. 'You're more in need of it than I am.' He said when he looked up at her again. 'Please, take it.' The two of them looked at each other for a while before Maria started to walk over to him, a slight smile forming on her lips when she accepted the cake.
'Danke, Tobias.' She said after walking over to the bed and sitting down.
'Bitte, Maria.' He replied.
He watched her as she ate, the fact that she had managed to eat the whole thing in less than a minute proof of how starving she was. 'Can I ask you something?' She said after shifting backwards on her bed until she was able to settle back against the wall and get comfortable.
'Mmm hmm.' He nodded.
'Why are you being so nice to me?' She cocked her head to one side.
He shrugged in response before sighing. 'You haven't given me a reason to be anything else.'
'Can I ask you something else?' She spoke up again.
'Anything.' He said.
'Do…do you know what Zeller is planning to do with me?' She asked him.
He felt his heart sink at her question. 'Yes, I do.'
'I'm guessing it doesn't end well for either me or my husband.' She lowered her gaze.
Tobias rose from his chair after sitting in silence for a while before approaching her bed and sitting down beside her, Maria lifting her gaze to his own as she felt the mattress dip under her. 'If I wasn't going to help you and prevent it from happening, if wouldn't end well at all.' He explained, a crease forming in-between Maria's brows as she tried to process his words.
'I don't understand.' She shook her head.
'This morning, before he left, Zeller told me that he's going to look for your husband for the next four days and if he doesn't find him…he's going to take you back to Austria.' A gentle gasp escaped Maria as her eyes widened. 'He also told me that when we get there, he's going to give you a false identity and I'm to take you as my bride.' He saw the sorrow in her eyes.
She shook her head again, sucking on her lower lip to stop it from wobbling. 'I can't do that.'
'I know.' He soothed. 'You're not going to, either.'
'But…'
He sighed and placed a hand on her shoulder. 'Do you know where your husband is?'
Maria looked at him with a suspicious expression on her face. What if he was just asking her that so that he could go off and tell Zeller where Georg was? What if she couldn't trust him and he wasn't trying to help her out at all? He had helped to abduct her just the other night!
'Maria, you need to trust me.' He told her. 'I promise you that all I want to do is help you.'
As she looked into his eyes for a few seconds longer, she began to realise that there was no deceit in them. He was being truthful. 'If he and the children aren't still in the mountains, they're at his sister's house. I remember him telling me that she lives at Rotfluhstrasse 36.'
'Rotfluhstrasse?' He raised his brow. 'Zeller drove through there when we were bringing you here. It took about five minutes to get from there to here, so I doubt it would take too long for us to get you there.' Maria's eyes sparkled with happiness as she gave him a warm smile.
'Can you take me there?' She asked. 'Today? Now?'
He thought about her words for a moment as he looked at her. He had planned to return her to her husband and children on the fourth day, when Zeller would be out the longest since that would have been his last chance to locate the Captain. The expression of delight on her face now, however, made him forget about all of that. All he wanted was for her to be safe.
'Of course.' He smiled.
'Wait.' Maria said when he got up from the bed. 'What if Zeller returns and sees us leave? He could be out looking for Georg and, if he is, he could see us walking and then what would we do?' She had made a valid point; a valid point that made Tobias think for a few minutes.
'I know.' He turned back to her when an idea came to him. 'You'll have to take your jumper and skirt off so that you're down to your slip. Then, I want you to take your blanket and use it to cover your head and wrap it around yourself. If Zeller does drive past us, he won't be able to see that it's you if your face is hidden.' Maria nodded before frowning at him again.
'He'll notice you, won't he?' She asked.
'I'll just take my shirt and jacket off so that I'm in my undershirt and trousers and then I'll mess my hair up a little. If we're discreet about it and we move quickly, I doubt that we'll end up getting caught.' He told her with confidence, Maria sighing as she looked up at him.
After looking at him in silence for a few seconds she said: 'I can't understand why a young man as nice as you would want to join the Nazis. You're not like them, Tobias, you're not violent and you're caring.' Tobias lowered his gaze to the floor for a second with a mutter.
'I haven't got much of a choice now.' He told her.
'When we get to my sister-in-law's villa and we see my husband, I'll tell him that you've been looking after me and that you helped me get back to him and – because I know what Georg is like – he'll tell you that he owes a debt to you. If you explain to him that you don't want to be a part of the Nazis anymore; if you ask if you can come with us, I think he would agree.'
'No, he wouldn't.' He shook his head. 'Not after what I did to you.'
She scoffed. 'You didn't do anything to me. It was Zeller who grabbed me; it was Zeller who gave me the sedative to knock me out and it was Zeller who's made us both stay in here!'
'I suppose...' He replied.
'All you can do is ask, Tobias. If you don't ask, you'll never know.' She told him.
The two of them shared a smile before she rose from the bed. 'We need to stop chatting and get ready to leave because we don't know when Zeller is going to be back.' She said, Tobias nodding in response before she began to get down to her slip and he to both his undershirt and his trousers. She then reached for the moth-eaten blanket and wrapped herself in it.
'Ready?' Tobias asked her after walking over to the door.
After making certain that her hair was hidden beneath the blanket, she nodded. 'I'm ready.'
He then opened the door before allowing her to step out of the shack first, a trembling sigh escaping him as he looked around the shack once more before following her and shutting the door behind them. As the two of them began to walk through the trees and towards the crowded street, Tobias realised that he'd never felt so anxious. He could be killed for this.
He knew that if the Captain refused to let him go wherever it was that he was taking Maria and their children it would be his own fault, but he also knew that if Zeller found him he would kill him. If he was killed, however, he would have been killed for doing a good deed and he was proud of that. Maria would be out of harm and back with her family and that was all that mattered to him.
Georg sighed when he was perched on the edge of the settee in his sister's sitting room later that afternoon and he lifted his cup of coffee to his lips to take a slow sip. He and Liesl and Hede had driven around for two-and-a-half hours, looking for Maria in numerous abandoned buildings, and there hadn't been a trace of her. When the three of them had returned to the car after checking the last building, he had thought about suggesting that they drove around for a little longer, but then he had realised that Liesl had fallen asleep against his shoulder.
Even though the thought of calling the search off for another night had broken his heart, the thought of forcing Liesl to keep looking when she had been so fatigued had been out of the question. On their return to the villa, he had sent Liesl upstairs to get some more rest whilst he and Hede decided on where the two of them would go and look tomorrow, and then the children had joined them. Marta and Gretl had been close to tears when they had realised that he had returned without their mother, but when Nanny Accola had entered the sitting room with Camilla and Luca it had managed to distract the two of them for a little while.
The sound of Marta and Gretl giggling brought him out of his thoughts after a few minutes and he couldn't help but chuckle when he looked at them and saw that Luca had shuffled into Marta's lap. He watched Gretl tickle his stomach through his vest whilst she sat beside Camilla and the sound of his infectious screeches and giggles made the girls giggle more. The fact that the two of them were so gentle with Camilla and Luca and knew how to make them laugh and smile reassured him that – if it turned out that Maria was pregnant – they would both make amazing big sisters. 'They're both naturals with them.' Hede pointed out.
He offered his little sister a smile when he turned his head towards her. 'Yes, they are.'
After he and Hede had watched the children play together for a short time longer, the sound of the doorbell rang out through the house. 'I had better go and get that.' She smiled before setting down her knitting. 'Would you mind watching the children for me whilst I do?' Georg nodded at her in response before she headed out of the room and across to the front door.
She couldn't hold back the soft gasp that escaped her when she opened it.
'Maria?' She instantly recognised the young woman from the wedding photo Georg had sent.
'Hede?' Maria smiled with a raise of her brow.
For a few moments, Hede was lost for words. 'Where on earth have you been?' She asked.
Maria and Tobias exchanged a glance before she turned back to her sister-in-law. 'I'll explain in a minute.' She reassured her, Hede nodding before she stepped to one side and allowed the two of them to enter the villa. 'Where's Georg? And the children?' She asked desperately.
'The older children are outside, but the younger ones are with Georg in the sitting room. 'I'll go and tell them that you're here.' Before Maria could utter another word, Hede had turned on her heel and was hurrying towards the sitting room. 'Georg…' She panted after making it to the doorway, her brother looking up at her from where he was sat, 'Maria's at the door!'
His eyes grew large and Marta and Gretl both stopped what they were doing and glanced up at her at the mention of their mother, all three of them rising in an instant before walking over to where she was standing and looking in the direction of the front door. Sure enough, Maria was standing there beside a man that none of them had seen before and with an old blanket wrapped around her. 'Mother!' Marta and Gretl squealed before rushing over to her.
Maria dropped the blanket and crouched down so that she was level with her daughters, her eyes stinging with tears of happiness when she opened her arms to them and let them fall into her embrace. She held Marta and Gretl tightly to her chest as they sobbed, both of them giggling in-between cries when she left little kisses over their faces and stroked their hair. She was trying her hardest to hold her own tears back, but when she looked up into the eyes of her husband and saw him smiling at her, she didn't care anymore and let them stream.
Her daughters let go of her after a few minutes and she felt her heart pound against her ribs as she got to her feet, her gaze never leaving Georg's as she walked over to him. She didn't manage to get a single word out before he took her hips in his hands, drew her flush against him and captured her lips with his in a long kiss. 'Mmph…' She whimpered into the kiss as she rested one hand on his chest and the other on the side of his neck, her thumb caressing the underside of his jaw as their lips shifted over one another's. 'I love you.' She breathed.
'I love you too.' He sniffed between kisses as tears of his own started to fall down his cheeks and he massaged her waist through her slip. The two of them broke apart from their kiss a few seconds later and pressed their foreheads together, Georg stroking her hair as she clung to him and pecked at his lips. 'I'm never letting you out of my sight again, you know that?'
Maria giggled in response before wrapping her arms around him and resting her head on his shoulder. He pressed countless kisses to the side of her head as he held her, her eyes shut as he ran his hands over her spine and she wiped her tear-stained cheeks on his shirt. 'What happened?' He hummed into her ear, a sigh escaping her when she looked over at Tobias.
'I'll tell you in a minute,' She reassured him, 'but first…first you need to know about Tobias.'
'Let me get this straight…' Georg pinched the bridge of his nose when he and Maria were sat alone together in Elias' study a little while later, 'you want me to let the man who abducted you; who dragged you off of that mountain and held you as a hostage in a shack, to come to America with us and the children?' Maria shifted a bit closer to him before taking his hand.
'Tobias wasn't the one who did the abducting.' She looked into his eyes as she spoke to him. 'He wasn't the one who grabbed me and gave me a drug that knocked me unconscious. He wasn't the one who dragged me down the mountain and put me in the car, either. Zeller was the one who did all of those things and Tobias was more of…well… more of a bystander.'
Georg sighed. 'He still had a part in your abduction, darling, whether he touched you or not.'
'Georg, he took such good care of me in that shack.' She stroked his hand. 'He could have let me starve and he could have been horrid to me, but he didn't and he wasn't. He shared his food with me when I said that I needed something to eat and he apologised to me for having a part in this. He's seventeen, my love, he's still a child and I can tell that he's so terrified.'
Georg sat in silence for a time as he thought about what she was saying.
'You were willing to give Rolfe another chance; you were willing to let him come with us and he had broken our daughter's heart, Georg. Tobias and Rolfe are the same age; doesn't that mean that he deserves a chance, too? The fact that he risked his life to bring me back to you and the children proves that there's good in him. If he goes back that shack, Zeller is going to kill him and if he goes back to Salzburg the Nazis will break him.' She squeezed his hand.
'You really trust him?' He raised his brow at her. 'You trust him around our children?'
She nodded. 'I do.'
'Then I do, too.' He gave her cheek a stroke with his free hand. 'I'm so glad you're alright.'
The two of them shared a smile before he leaned in to brush her lips with his.
'I can't wait to sleep in a proper bed with you tonight.' She giggled. 'Even the bed that I slept on in that shack felt like heaven after sleeping on the ground for so long.' She leaned into him when he slipped his arm around her shoulders, her lips finding his cheek as she smiled. She rested her head on his shoulder after drawing back a little, her eyes drifting closed as she yawned before he ran his fingers through her hair and pressed his lips against her brow.
'Would you like to go upstairs and get some rest?' He asked her.
'I would,' She admitted, 'but only if you join me.'
He chuckled against her skin. 'You head up, sweetheart, and I'll be with you once I've spoken to Tobias.' Maria lifted her head off of his shoulder before stretching her stiffened muscles.
'Be nice to him.' She told him before she rose from the settee and walked out of the study.
Once she had closed the door behind herself, he sighed.
He wasn't sure about this Tobias fellow one bit, but Maria knew him a lot better than he did and if she trusted him then he would try and do so as well.
He would do whatever he had to in order to make his wife happy.
As he laid in bed beside Maria that evening, he was unable to stop himself from pressing his lips to the top of her head again whilst she slept in his arms. Even though it had only been two nights since he had last gone to sleep with her snuggled against him, he had missed her warm weight and the sound of her snores. He had missed knowing that she was with him.
She hadn't joined him and Hede and the children for dinner that evening; when he had gone up to change she had been sound asleep and he hadn't had the heart to disturb her. When he had come to bed he had brought her up a sandwich and had held her as she had eaten it, but she had laid down and gone back to sleep again almost as soon as she had finished it.
He couldn't believe that she had felt the need to apologise to him for being so worn out. She had been through such an ordeal and it didn't surprise him that she couldn't keep her eyes open. He wanted her to rest as much as possible so that she gained her strength back faster and so that they and their children and Tobias could leave Switzerland as soon as possible.
This time, however, they would be leaving by train and not by foot.
He wasn't going to put his family through all of that again.
When Maria whimpered in his arms he tightened his hold of her and pressed a kiss onto her head again, his love for her deepening when she shifted a little until her head came to rest on his shoulder. 'My beautiful girl.' He whispered to her before giving her a peck on the lips.
He saw her lips curl up into the slightest smile in her sleep and couldn't help but chuckle at the sight. She was the most adorable creature. After watching her sleep in his arms for the next couple of minutes, he realised that in order for him to be able to take care of her in the morning he had to get some rest and so he reached to turn off the lamp on his nightstand.
Once the room had been plunged into darkness he snuggled further down beneath the quilt with her and allowed her to tangle one of her legs with his, his hand massaging her waist through the nightgown that Hede had allowed her to borrow as she burrowed into his neck. 'Mmm…goodnight, Georg.' She mumbled before leaving a number of kisses over his skin.
'Goodnight, my brave girl.' He whispered back whilst stroking her hair. 'Pleasant dreams.'
The two of them fell into silence again after that and Georg allowed his eyes to fall closed, a gentle sigh escaping him as he listened to the sound of his wife's snores and allowed them to lull him into a peaceful slumber for the first time in days.
Author's Note: Maria and Georg are reunited! I hope that you all enjoyed that and didn't think that things moved too fast, but it was killing me having Maria and Georg apart and I find it so much easier to write about them if they're together for some reason. Things should be a little fluffier now that they're together again, so I hope you'll all like that. I would be so grateful if you would review to let me know what you thought, and I'll see you all soon :-)